Don't knock ‘em till you tried ‘em.

People sleep on Werther’s but they’re legitimately awesome.

I have a pretty good idea by the February bid period that I won’t get Christmas off. How have you not figured that out?

Gonna step on my big toe (Sgt Hulka?!) and make a few comments-

We COULD (try and) fix this.
1) NO Schedules are released till EVERY Schedule is done.
Let's think about that for a second.
That would probably **** off a bunch of BES's that have historically always got their awards before other BES's that historically got theirs at the end.
Is that a solution. Of course.
Is it a Good solution? Up for discussion, but I would lean towards no..

2) We do a rolling PBS run where every month a different BES goes first, and a different BES goes last.
We have 50 BES's (25 Capt/FO's). It's already known why the Captain awards can be posted earlier, but with a change of Who goes First, Who goes Last - every month, there would be a bit more "fairness" within the two seats and bases.
Is it a Good solution? Again, up for discussion but this one might be more agreeable to the pilot group.

But now comes the even more controversial part.

You junior pilots have more of a choice of where you go (with regards to your carrier) than many of us old heads did.
Good for you!
That being said, almost all of us took a job at a major without fully knowing all the little nuances of their contract.
Part of the UAL UPA is that our PBS and timeline for awards.. well, it sucks!

And while you have a right to *****, keep in mind you choose to come here. Get in line behind the more senior pilots who also hate this crap.
The fact that, as a Professional Pilot you don't "really" know what your schedule going into the next month, until the night of the 17th? It's Crazy.

But put forth a resolution at a LEC meeting. Tell your reps. Do PDR's.
But don't just come on here and ***** when you might not have spent a fraction of time under these rules.
It's about knowing your audience. Or when not to post when you're drinking?! LOL

Always
Motch

Wasting you time Motch. 12-year old screen name and every post leads with prick or douche. Commute Air is feeling like the Seahawks after Russ trade. Should really quit and go into crypto.

Because some of them need extra time coordinating their schedules with their second, third, and fourth families on various continents. With rank comes privilege.

I'm pretty sure option 1 is basically the "if I can't have my schedule early, no one will", so kinda selfish for those in large BES.
Option 2 would require the bid to close for the larger BESs first, because right now, all the bids close at the same time and the bids run concurrently. Therefore, the only reason the large BES run longer is because the solution takes longer.
The only real solution to get the schedule earlier is to:
1) switch to a different PBS vendor (probably 50/50 support for/against that)
2) close the bidding window earlier (might get a majority to vote agree here)
3) limit the options in PBS to make it a simpler, albeit less powerful system or change the UPA to account for less schedule flexibility, thus causing a quicker PBS solution
4) Go back to PCL like SWA has and get vacation drop with conflict and it will take about 60 seconds after bid close to get an award (good luck putting that toothpaste back in the tube)
5) Get the company to pay for a server powerful enough to complete the solution faster. Based on the way they are cheap when it comes to this type of thing, this might actually be viable, but no idea what hardware runs PBS and unsure if that's the best tech that's available today.

I'd say send a PDR to the SSC and ask them what hardware PBS runs on. It's possible that PBS runs on a Pentium computer for all we know (i'm being facetious), and we could get an updated server that could accomplish the bid in a day. I would hope that we are using the most powerful hardware available, but could not back that up with any evidence.

Why do I have to wait until the 16th to get paid? Anyone who complains about the company meeting a contractual deadline needs to shake themselves.

I like butterscotch candies

that is all

One day you will find hard candy in your pocket and won’t remember how it got there. That’s how you know you are ready to upgrade.